Cirilo Alejandre, 50, his father, said doctors told him Anthony survived the worst, but his prognosis is unclear.

"He's a little bit better, but it's moment by moment right now," said Alejandre. "We are doing a lot of praying."

Alejandre said it appears the bullet entered through the boy's cheek and exited through the back of his neck, without hitting anything serious, he said in Spanish.

On Monday, Anthony finished his homework and went to a neighbor's across the street to play with a friend.

Just before 7:30 p.m., the friend "came running, saying there was an accident," Alejandre said. "My heart just stopped."

He ran across the street and saw his son unresponsive and covered in blood.

"We tried everything. I will never get that image from my head," said the father, who sells produce for a living.

Rescue workers arrived at the house in the 600 block of Northwest First Way within minutes, he said.

Inside the house were Anthony's friend's mother, her two sons, ages 17 and 8, and a 10-year-old daughter. Detectives determined early on that the mother and the two younger children were not in the room where the shooting occurred.

The Sheriff's Office released no further details on Tuesday. Still to be determined are the exact whereabouts of the 17-year-old at the time of the shooting, whose gun was involved, and who fired the shot that struck Anthony.